


Who are you now (who were you then)

by SerialKillerQueen



Series: Difficult Girl(s) [13]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Childhood Friends, Crushes, Developing Friendships, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Genderbending, Genderswap, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Multi, Some of these characters are mostly in the background, Tommy H. Redemption, childhood crushes, do not copy to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 22:21:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20713460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerialKillerQueen/pseuds/SerialKillerQueen
Summary: Tammy H. has a story, same as anyone else.





	Who are you now (who were you then)

**Author's Note:**

> Check the mycast for faceclaims! Tammy's faceclaim has red hair, Carl's faceclaim has dark brown, and Steph's faceclaim has blue eyes! So there's no confusion!  
(The first part of this is a flashback).  
Stranger Things and its characters do not belong to me. All rights go to their respective owners.

_"Tamara come here, I'll help you cover them."_

_Her mother's words before 7 year old Tamara Hallett went to school that morning were not out of the norm, she often said things like that about her freckles (or her slightly stringy red hair, or sometimes even her teeth, there was always _something_)._

_The "I just don't want you to get made fun of," the, "We have to appear a certain way," never helped, never made it hurt less._

_She's only just stepped into the building when suddenly something slams into her and she goes tumbling._

_"Ow!" _

_Or... someone?_

_Pushing herself up she is met with two startled blue eyes, and is this not Mrs. Harrington's daughter? She's sure she's seen her in her neighborhood._

_The other girl is standing back up and extending a hand to help her._

_"Sorry! Carl distracted me!"_

_She follows the girl's pointing finger and sees a boy with dark hair sitting nearby who looks up to meet her gaze._

_He's got really pretty eyes..._

_"I'm uh... I'm Stephanie! What's your name?"_

_She turns back to the girl who's... actually still holding her hand._

_And the thing is? She doesn't really have friends, she's to quiet, she's from to important a family for some kids, and to weird, maybe a bit to mean, for other kids._

_But there's something about Stephanie's smile and Carl's eyes that make her think maybe she could have some._

_"I'm Tamara but... I like to be called Tammy."_

19 year old Tammy Hallett is not the same as the seven year old girl who accepted Stephanie Harrington's hand.

But she's not the same as the 18 year old girl who pushed her aside for the new California originated Queen of Hawkins either.

Because the thing is.

She's got a guy that she loves, he's an asshole sometimes and so is she, but not to each other.

Because she still thinks his eyes are beautiful.

Because she remembers that Steph was the first person to point at her red hair and call it pretty.

Because she still likes her smile.

Because she realized one day that Stephanie looked at her kind of like Carl does and it scared her because she didn't want to lose her best friend over feelings she couldn't return.

Because despite that when she realized Stephanie was falling for Nathaniel she got jealous and pushed her away (it wasn't hard, they'd both become assholes by that point, her mother's words and the complete absence of Stephanie's own parents hovering over their heads, along with the knowledge that their parents had _money_ and that made them _better_ than others at their school).

Because Billie Hargrove refused to accept that.

Because she sees the way Stephanie looks at Billie and the way Billie looks back and feels like a weight (with the words "Tammy Hallett" and "Nathaniel Wheeler" written on it's side) has been lifted off her chest.

Because one of the kids who always seem to be hovering around Stephanie and Billie ('Even' she thinks is his name), walks up to her and takes her hand and says "I understand." 

Because _Johanna Byers_ of all people suddenly looks at her like she understands her too.

Because even when they graduate she lets Billie drag ("drag") her around with her, stays in Stephanie's orbit, keeps Carl's hand in her own. 

Because they're all trying, even Tammy Hallett.

**Author's Note:**

> I may have been a tad softer on Tammy than I ever intended but if I can cut Billie some slack I can cut her some too. No teenager acts like she (or he in canon) does without a reason and I think we all know parents can be a big reason. Also on the chance it was confusing dropout_ninja's fic "Somewhere" functions as a prequel to this verse and in that Eleven and Johanna (Johnathan's) mutual terrible parent is their mother (Marta Brenner and Lonni respectively) so when Even says he understands, he means he understands having a cruddy mom. And for clarification's sake, Tammy doesn't and never did have feelings for Stephanie, her jealously was over realizing her best friend was maturing and growing away from her.  
I've also touched on terrible ST fathers a lot so I wanted to try something new with Tammy's backstory.  
I feel like the title I used sounds familiar? Not an exact match, but similar to something I've read, but I can't figure out where (there's none with the same title in my bookmarks) so I'll just say that the title was probably inspired by something! Sorry!
> 
> The inspiration for Stephanie and Tammy knowing each other since childhood and Tammy and Carl's relationship was inspired by  
'master of puppets, i'm pulling your strings' by wearealltalesintheend  
and  
'Causal Nexus' by drabbleswabbles  
They both put a very interesting take on Tommy H.  
I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Check out the mycast for faceclaim references!  
https://www.mycast.io/stories/stranger-things-genderswap-1


End file.
